UK consumers experienced higher volumes of fraud and more losses in the first half of the year, compared to the same time period in 2024, according to the latest figures from the banking industry.
UK Finance’s Half Year Fraud Report 2025 revealed a 3% increase in losses and a 17% surge in fraud cases in H1 2025. In total, consumers lost £629m ($839m) in the first half of the year on the back of 2.1 million cases.
It said the rise in losses could be attributed to more being stolen through authorized push payment (APP) fraud, while the increase in cases comes mainly from authorized fraud.
The former recorded a 12% annual uptick in losses, despite a decline in cases, thanks to the continued threat posed by romance and investment scams which often start on social media. It said romance fraud losses increased 35% year-on-year while cases surged by 19% annually.
Read more on UK fraud: Authorized Push Payment Fraud a National Security Risk to UK, Report Finds
“Looking across the different categories of APP fraud captured in our data, the significant driver of increased APP losses was investment fraud,” the report claimed.
“Losses in this category in H1 2025 were 55% up on the same period a year ago and account for 38% of total APP losses. Moreover, the average loss in an investment scam case is more than 20 times that of a purchase scam – still the most common APP fraud in terms of case numbers.”
Overall, APP fraud cases declined 8% in the period but related losses increased by 12%.
Unauthorized Fraud Drives Increased Volume
Unauthorized fraud includes cards, cheques and remote banking. As the name suggests, it occurs without the victim’s knowledge – for example if their card data was breached via a third party or compromised via an infostealer.
UK Finance reported a 3% annual decline in losses to unauthorized fraud in the first half of the year. The reported decline in fraud losses was even higher for cheque (-41%) and remote banking (-25%).
However, the value of card fraud increased 5% annually to reach £299m. The figure has been on a steady upward trajectory since early 2023, driven by card-not-present purchases typically made online, UK Finance said.
“There were 1.94 million unauthorized card fraud cases in H1, nearly a fifth up on a year ago; the highest ever recorded total for a six-month period,” it added.
The banking industry body blamed social engineering and compromised one-time passcodes (OTPs) as enabling this type of fraud and said that declining average case values are forcing criminals to target ever larger numbers of people.
Jonathan Frost, director of global advisory for EMEA at BioCatch, explained that mandatory APP reimbursement requirements for banks has not yet resulted in improved fraud and financial crime detection.
“Sadly, the report suggests that while the industry is pushing back, criminals are pushing harder and, for now, gaining ground. In the first half of 2025, every minute, there were £2300 of confirmed fraud losses, £5590 in attempted fraud stopped, and eight people were victimized,” he added.
“Despite new reimbursement rules and public awareness drives such as ‘Stop! Think Fraud,’ the data shows that criminals continue to exploit weak controls in the digital ecosystems of tech giants, with most APP scams being traced to online sources.”
